News & Information

Holocaust Survivor to visit HLGU

Wednesday, March 5, 2014by Rebecca Sneed

Hannibal-LaGrange University will be hosting Holocaust survivor, forgiveness advocate, and public speaker Eva Mozes Kor on Friday, March 28 at 5:30 pm in the Roland Fine Arts Center. Following her message, Eva will hold a book signing in the RFAC lobby.

The community is welcome to be a part of this moving event. Tickets are $5 each at the door. HLGU students, faculty, and staff get in free with an HLGU ID.

Powered by a never-give-up attitude, Eva has emerged through a life filled with trauma as a brilliant example of the power of the human spirit to overcome. She is a community leader, a champion of human rights, and tireless educator of young people.

In 1944, Eva and her family were loaded into a cattle car packed with other Jewish prisoners and transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Eva and her twin sister Miriam were just ten years old. At Auschwitz, the girls were ripped apart from their mother, father, and two older sisters, never to see any of them ever again. Eva and Miriam became part of a group of children used as human guinea pigs in genetic experiments, under the direction of the now-infamous Dr. Josef Mengele. Approximately 1,500 sets of twins were abused, and most died as a result of these experiments. Eva herself became gravely ill, but through sheer determination, she stayed alive and helped Miriam survive. Approximately 200 children were found alive by the Soviet Army at the liberation of the camp on January 27, 1945. The majority of the children were Mengele twins. Eva and Miriam Mozes were among them.

In 1995, Eva opened CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Terre Haute, with a mission to prevent prejudice and hatred through education about the Holocaust. CANDLES, which stands for Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors, has educated thousands of people, including many school groups, about the Holocaust.

For more information about this event, please contact Tami Ensor, Administrative Assistant to the President, at 573-629-3252, or via email at tami.ensor@hlg.edu.